ESSENDON assistant coach Gary O’Donnell is unsure whether Carlton will come out breathing fire this week, but if it does he believes the Bombers will be ready.
The two clubs meet at the MCG on Friday night and in the space of a fortnight the pressure has suddenly lifted from Windy Hill and been firmly dumped on Brett Ratten’s men at Visy Park.
O’Donnell said he felt no sympathy for Carlton and was instead focused on ensuring Essendon maintained its own intensity.
The Bombers have responded to their own form woes with successive wins over North Melbourne and St Kilda.
“They’ve [Carlton] been a famous footy club in the VFL/AFL, they’ve been very successful, they’ve had these sort of things happen in the past and good clubs respond,” O’Donnell said.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re ready for that ... we can’t worry too much about them.”
The Blues are under enormous pressure after an insipid performance against Collingwood at the weekend, the eight-goal loss prompting Ratten to question his players’ hardness.
“To see players pull out, not go in and miss tackles, it’s damning on our brand,” Ratten said after the loss.
“When the contest was up for grabs, we were found wanting.”
Given Ratten’s words, one would expect the Blues to respond on the field this week, but O’Donnell said Friday night wouldn’t necessarily be a fierce contest.
“Who knows?” he said.
“It’s amazing, some games are really built up and they can be a little bit flat, but certainly you would have thought Carlton will come out all guns blazing.
“Hopefully Essendon will come out all guns blazing as well.”
The assistant put Essendon’s turnaround in form down to a number of factors, with players’ pride in their own performance at the top of the list.
The Bombers are now hoping to end their season on a high note, and a win against the Blues will go a long way to continuing their momentum.
Jason Winderlich is a chance to come in for Friday night’s match, with the Bombers needing to bring in at least one man for Scott Gumbleton, who looks set to miss the rest of the season with broken ribs and a punctured lung.
“We’re looking at him [Winderlich] training both today and Thursday,” O’Donnell said.
“He had surgery about 10 days ago so it’s touch and go ... we’ve got fingers crossed.”
